STMS-Connectivity

Middle School Area Connectivity Plan

Recent news and updates

The Project Development Team wants to share some great news and the final products from the project.

The great news: The City of South Lake Tahoe voted to be lead on implementation if the state grant was awarded and the grant application was successful! The City received $2.14 million to construct the priority project making Al Tahoe Blvd from Johnson Blvd to Highway 50 safer for all users by realigning the driving lanes and installing multi-use paths, sidewalks, and bike lanes. Construction is expected to begin in 2017. The priority project was chosen by all of your input. See the Connectivity Plan for details on the alternatives and public participation. This is a huge success and will fill one of the largest gaps in South Lake Tahoe’s bike and pedestrian system.

From a previous On Our Way grant, the Community Mobility group created a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Master Plan. The Connectivity Plan is a (large) appendix to the SRTS Master Plan and the SRTS Master Plan will be included in TRPA’s Active Transportation Plan (previously Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan). The SRTS Master Plan was approved by the Lake Tahoe Unified School District and we expect it to be adopted by the City of South Lake Tahoe and the County of El Dorado in the coming months.

History and Background

In April of 2014, the Community Mobility (CM) group got news that we received the On Our Way grant we submitted through the Lake Tahoe Unified School District (press release). The $156,000 grant is funding assessment and planning for the Middle School area, making the area safer and more accessible for students and addressing connectivity gaps to the greater South Lake community. This will result in shovel-ready project(s) for construction funding applications over the coming years. This was the highest-ranked project submitted.

In September of 2014 the work began. Design Workshop was selected as the prime contractor and they will be working with Alta Planning + Design and Cardno ENTRIX to develop project alternatives and plans. The Project Development Team (PDT) consists of CM Group Co-Chairs, Lake Tahoe Unified School District, the City of South Lake Tahoe, TRPA, and the Tahoe Transportation District. Click here for the Scope of Work.

Between September of 2014 and May of 2015, the contractors, the PDT, and the CM group worked to engage students, parents, teachers, and the broader community in order to help identify opportunities to create safer, more walkable and bikeable routes around the South Tahoe Middle School (STMS), Bijou Park and Lake Tahoe Community College:

The first outreach event was held Thursday morning, October 16. The “Walkabout & Coffee Talk” took place at STMS and we walked the project area and identified safety concerns during the morning drop-off at STMS.

The second outreach event was on Thursday evening, October 16. The public workshop was used to introduce the project, identify opportunities, and discuss challenges for walking and biking in the area. The maps from this event are available here.

These events included a survey, which we put online and received over 1,000 responses from students, parents, and community members; the summary results are included in the presentation from November 19th (PDF). The consultants and volunteers through the CM group conducted bike and pedestrian counts, the results can be seen in the analysis maps (PDF).

The third outreach event was Wednesday, November 19. A public workshop to present the alternatives and begin the process of selecting a preferred alternative (location and type of project) to have engineered and designed at the level necessary to apply for construction grants. Participants received a presentation and then had the opportunity to ask questions before voting for their favorite project location and type.

In addition to these community events, we have had targeted meetings and feedback sessions with agency, commission, and coalition stakeholders.

In May of 2015, the Project Development Team (PDT) submitted a construction application to the California Active Transportation Program for the priority project selected from all of the projects and their alternatives proposed by the public and refined by the PDT. The priority project is a complete redesign of Al Tahoe Blvd from Johnson Blvd to Highway 50 and includes changing the driving lanes on Al Tahoe and building a multi-use path, sidewalks, and bike lanes along Al Tahoe. This project will make the area a safer school zone and provide connectivity between existing bike and pedestrian facilities along Highway 50, Al Tahoe, Johnson Blvd, and the Community College.

The final Connectivity Plan and the grant decision are expected in October of 2015.

For more information, contact:
Ben Fish with Design Workshop: bfish@designworkshop.com
Gavin Feiger with the CM group and the Project Development Team: gavin.feiger@gmail.com

The project is funded by an On Our Way Grant from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

The work upon which this publication is based was funded in whole or in part through a grant awarded by the Strategic Growth Council. The statements and conclusions of this report are those of the TRPA/TMPO and/or Subcontractor and not necessarily those of the Strategic Growth Council or of the Department of Conservation, or its employees. The Strategic Growth Council and the Department make no warranties, express or implied, and assume no liability for the information contained in the succeeding text.